HUMAN CONSERVATION 333 



regarded as a serious handicap in such lines of work. 

 Advertisements concerning "unincumbered help" and 

 "childless apartments" tell their own deplorable tale. 

 One of the darkest features of the dark ages from 

 a eugenic standpoint was the enforced celibacy of the 

 priesthood, since this resulted, as a rule, in withdrawing 

 into monasteries and nunneries much of the best blood 

 of the times, and this uneugenic custom still obtains in 

 many quarters to-day. 



C. BY SUBSIDIZING THE FIT 



It is possible that if some of the philanthropic en- 

 deavor now directed toward alleviating the condition 

 of the unfit should be directed to enlarging the oppor- 

 tunity of the fit, greater good would result in the 

 end. In breeding animals and plants the most notable 

 advances have been made by isolating and developing 

 the best, rather than by attempting to raise the stand- 

 ard of mediocrity through the elimination of the worst. 



One leader is worth a score of followers in any com- 

 munity, and the science of genetics surely gives to edu- 

 cators the hint that it is wiser to cultivate the excep- 

 tional pupil who is often left to take care of himself 

 than to expend all the energies of the instructor in 

 forcing the indifferent or ordinary one up to a passing 

 standard. The campaign for human betterment in the 

 long run must do more than avoid mistakes. It must 

 become aggressive and take advantage of those human 

 mutations or combinations of traits which appear in the 

 exceptionally endowed. 



